Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Canal Playground by HRPlett (1/2) N49° 39.016  W96° 55.817 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 649399  N 5501804 Use waypoint: GC17JVJ Size: Small    Hidden on 11/24/2007 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:             This is where R of HRPlett used to play and go mini-bike racing with his brother. The homestead is less than one mile away and is now inhabited by his brother and family. The area was called "Wille Dousand" by Grandma & Grandpa - translated "The Wild Thousand" acres, barren and desolate! Third generation Plett's now farm the land and consider it a rich heritage. This is our second cache celebrating R's birthday! The cache is a lock-n-lock container with the following contents: FTF certificate and Tim Horton's prize Beaded bracelet Canadian 50 cent piece Flashing Santa pin Canada key chain "To Bee or not to Bee" Travel Bug Dirt bike toy reminiscent of years gone by

Additional Hints (There are no hints for this cache)

4/26/2008 by Kabuthunk
This cache has been on my "to do" list for god knows how long now. Another cache out near Landmark? That I didn't place myself? Is that possible? So today, I had just finished a visit at my parent's place (as well as fixing up my own geocache a good deal upstream from here), and had set my mind to go after this cache after we had left.

There had been other times in which I contemplated going after this cache since it's placement... but typically when I leave my parent's place, it's about 7:30-8:00pm, if not later. Given this cache was placed in November... this equates to dark. Combined with said darkness... it's also cold. Two attributes I generally want to avoid if at all possible. Either one I can handle no problem... but when you start combining both... it can quickly turn into a not fun time. Especially when it's windy.

So naturally today, I had left my parent's place at about 7:40 or so. However... what's this? It's not ridiculously dark outside? It may be cold and windy... but the other attribute of darkness seemed to be about an hour away!

"Well", says Kabuthunk. "Looks like we're taking a bit of a scenic route back to Winnipeg".

To the Kabsmobile! Hopping into the car, we hook down the gravel road leading to the cache (I seem to recall road #44 on the sign, but don't quote me on that one). A scant few minutes later, and having to deal with heavy traffic (we saw two cars on the way! TWO! It's like the friggin' interstate today!) we found ourselves at the coordinates.

My wife stayed in the car naturally (still haven't converted her into a geocacher yet), so off I went. Poking, proding, and feeling around the coordinates, I come up empty-handed. Checking out cachemate on my palm pilot, the cache description or past logs don't tell me anything new. Taking another swing at the geocache, I find it within several minutes. SUCCESS .

However, on the way to sit down somewhere to sign the logbook, my naturally graceful moves slipped up a bit, and I clocked my head on one of the wooden beams of the bridge. Not entirely sure how I managed to do it, but I saw stars, and still have a headache several hours later. The term "minor concussion" comes to mind .

So, several choice words later... likely of the variety not meant for children's ears... I sat down and signed me up some logbook. A chainmail ball later, and I sealed up the cache for another cacher. Thanks for the adventure, even if it was a touch on the painful side for me .


Although... though the name of the cache would seem to imply it, and Google Maps as well seems to confirm it... would this playground from childhood be Manning Canal? I find it rather strange and amazing that someone else played at the bridges of Manning Canal as a child. Following the satellite map on Google Maps, from your coordinates, the canal leads right up to mine... so unless I missed a split somewhere, or it's named something else over there... methinks it's the same Canal. I was also rather amused by the fact that the under-part of your Canal bridge looks almost identical to the under-bridge of where I played as a kid. So many memories. To think that junk that we threw in the water as a kid to watch float downstream may well have been seen by yourselves a short time later.

Yeah, I know that's highly unlikely... but the fact that the chance of that still exists is still kinda cool. Ahh, good times, good times. And as an ADDED bonus, this is the very first cache I've found since I got married last Friday (not yesterday... but the Friday before... April 18th). WOOH! FIRST MARRIED CACHE EVER !

So remember kids... Canals can be fun .

But again... thanks for the cache. Good times, good memories, good cache .

Took: Minor concussion
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball